The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, April 21, 1917, LAST EDITION, Image 5

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

mmmsssmm?5My?S8WrwHHWSOUTH WATER STREET MERCHANTS HIT ASPRICE JUGGLERS.Habits of South Water street commission merchants of throwing goodfood into the garbage heaps to keepthe prices up, of holding off or bringing on the market large amounts ofvegetables to manipulate the supplyand demand to suit themselves, willbe exposed to the government shortly, according to a rumor emanatingfrom the headquarters of the Commission Merchants Helpers' union.Aoout 450 members of the unionare on strike against the commissionmerchants and they are supposed tobe pretty sore .because their formerbosses refuse to treat with the union.As many of them have had positions of confidence along the street" for as. long as 20 years, they knowhow, the market has been handled."Hundreds of them have seen carloads of good vegetables allowed totoV on a siding because if they wereallowed to come into the marketthey would bring prices down andthe merchants would lose.What becomes of the enormousmargin between the prices the farmers get and the people of the city paywill probably be shown if the unionmen "spill the beans" on their bosses. And this is what they are said tobe ready to do. 'One member of the union put itlike this:- "There is no doubt that the commission men are manipulating themarket and w,e can prove it. They'conspire to keep prices up and that,Js hi violation of federal law punishable by a penitentiary sentence. Ican show where they have dumpedtons and tons of good food on scrapheaps and burned it to keep it off themarket"If the stuff were allowed to comein prices would drop and merchantswould have to sell stocks they boughtat higher rates under the new andJower scale. To keep this from happening they destroy the surplus orjust let it rot in the cars."We have a sample of their manip1ulation today. Texas, onions wereshipped here in express cars for thefirst time in the history of the SouthWater street markets because ilwould pay more than the differencebetween express and freight rates ttget the onions on the market beforethe big local supply matures and theprices falL"There are hundreds of local truckfarmers and Michigan fruit raiserswho will be glad to come forward andtell of the dirty deals they have beenhanded by the gang of highly-organizedcommission men. There aremore new millionaires along SouthWater street than there are on SouthLa Salle street."There is no real competitionamong the merchants."Tons nd tons of potatoes havebeen hoarded by the South Waterstreet merchants since the government reports first indicated therewould be a shortage in tubers. Theirgame is without a chance of loss."They just bought every potatothey could lay their hands on andstored, them safely away until theprice approached its highest level;then they quietly unloaded at fancyprices. Their profits were enormous." The Chicago Board of Trade isbody of food speculators destined tofeel the hand of the governmentwithin a short time.Federal officials are in conferencetoday in Washington discussing theadvisability of placing a certain priceon all grain to stop speculation,which yesterday sent the price sparing to formerly unknown heights.Even grain merchants of the moreconservative sort are in favor of thecurb because the teriftc increases inthe selling price of grain during thepast week has aroused a strong .pub-'jfiiifiiniiiitoiiiiii murirvr-- --- " -.-t-ujcAxa-.,